Honbul: Flame of the Soul

By the time Im Hyomun and Jaegyeom came out of the movie theater, it was already past noon.

They still had plenty of time before work, so they decided to grab lunch first. Im Hyomun said he knew a good place nearby and led the way while Jaegyeom followed behind him.

The restaurant he brought him to stood directly across from the Office of Narye headquarters.

“This place?”

Jaegyeom looked up at the sign with mild disinterest.

“Jeong Deokcheol’s King Tonkatsu.”

A huge photograph of a man presumed to be Jeong Deokcheol himself was plastered across the signboard. Judging from the fact that he’d boldly put his own name and face on the place, he seemed extremely confident in his food.

The restaurant was already more than half full.

“That guy the owner?”

Im Hyomun nodded.

Jaegyeom studied the face on ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) the sign more closely. Wearing a white chef’s hat, Jeong Deokcheol stood with his arms crossed and a broad grin on his face. He was enormous—thick-necked, broad-shouldered, and intimidating enough to scare children on sight.

“He looks like he could wrestle a wild boar to death. More like a bandit chief than a restaurant owner.”

“That’s my dad.”

Jaegyeom visibly jolted.

His gaze bounced rapidly between Im Hyomun and the man on the sign. It had never even crossed his mind that they could be related. They looked absolutely nothing alike.

And besides—

“But your last name’s Im.”

“I took my mom’s surname. She’s an Im.”

“Oh... I see...”

The world really had changed a lot.

A flicker of guilt hit Jaegyeom for talking so casually about somebody else’s father. Feeling awkward, he clasped his hands together and hastily corrected himself.

“He’s got great presence. Really solid-looking. Any thief would probably run away the second they saw him. Like they say, the best victory is winning without fighting, so he probably wouldn’t even need to fight anybody.”

“Huh? Why are you suddenly talking about thieves?”

Im Hyomun stared at him in confusion before shaking his head and walking into the restaurant first.

The place buzzed with customers eating lunch. One of the employees at the counter spotted Im Hyomun and greeted him warmly.

“This is my coworker,” Im Hyomun explained. “Seventy-Seven, this noona works here.”

Jaegyeom awkwardly bowed his head.

“I’m here as a customer today, so don’t make me work.”

“Okay, okay.”

Im Hyomun brought Jaegyeom to a window seat, told him to wait a minute, then immediately disappeared into the kitchen.

A little later, Jeong Deokcheol himself emerged from inside.

In his hand was a square metal tool lined with vicious-looking spikes.

Jaegyeom flinched.

Not knowing it was just a meat tenderizer for pork cutlets, he briefly thought Im Hyomun had already reported the “bandit chief” comment to his father.

“Oh ho! So you’re Hyomun’s friend. Welcome, welcome.”

Fortunately, contrary to Jaegyeom’s fears, the man did not swing the weapon-like object at his head.

He looked exactly like the photo on the sign, as though he’d stepped straight out of it. Despite the fierce appearance, though, his demeanor was surprisingly gentle.

You really can’t judge people by how they look.

Jaegyeom awkwardly exchanged greetings with him.

“Seventy-Seven, our tonkatsu set’s the best thing here. You should try it.”

“Hm? Oh.”

Im Hyomun personally brought over the utensils along with side dishes like kimchi and pickles. Even though he’d just insisted they not put him to work, his hands moved automatically from habit.

Meanwhile, Jaegyeom sat quietly and looked around the restaurant.

It was packed.

He’d never known Im Hyomun’s family ran a restaurant this close to headquarters. Loud music poured from the ceiling speakers while Im Hyomun absentmindedly hummed along, munching on cucumber pickles.

“Seventy-Seven, try these. We make them ourselves.”

The pickles were crisp, tangy, and slightly sweet.

“How are they?”

“They’re good.”

Jaegyeom answered with complete seriousness.

Im Hyomun nodded, satisfied.

“I’ll pack some for you to take home. They’re great with rice.”

“Okay.”

Jaegyeom accepted immediately without even pretending to refuse.

Most people would have declined out of politeness first, but he was painfully straightforward about things like this. Im Hyomun liked that about him. Clumsy or not, he was exactly the same inside and out.

“Come by whenever you want tonkatsu. Bring your parents too.”

“Okay. But I don’t have parents.”

“...Huh?”

Im Hyomun froze with wide rabbit-like eyes.

The pickle balanced on his fork slipped off and landed on the table.

He said he had a younger sibling. A younger sibling.

“Then... you live alone with your sibling?”

“No. There are three of us.”

When Jaegyeom casually explained that they lived with his uncle, Im Hyomun blinked rapidly, unsure how to respond.

Fidgeting with one of his piercings, he hesitated for a long moment before cautiously asking,

“What does your uncle do?”

“He’s unemployed right now, so he’s always home.”

“...”

Im Hyomun silently stirred his pickles around for a while.

Then suddenly his face turned bright red and he made a strangled noise, grabbing his forehead.

“What? What’s wrong with you?”

Sniffling, Im Hyomun pointed weakly at a tiny black speck in the pickle.

“N-no, it’s just... ugh... I bit into a whole peppercorn...”

Curious, Jaegyeom bit into one himself.

“...Ah.”

Yeah. That made sense.

He immediately spat it out and gulped down water with a grimace.

“Hey. Drink some water.”

Im Hyomun continued sniffling miserably for quite a while after that.

***

In the slightly awkward atmosphere, Im Hyomun eventually pulled out his phone.

“Let’s play a round until the food comes.”

Still sniffling occasionally, he opened Friends Pang.

It was his way of changing the mood.

Jaegyeom, who’d been sitting there with nothing to do, immediately straightened up and hurriedly pulled out his own phone.

The day before, Im Hyomun had taught him everything about Friends Pang.

First came installing the messaging app.

With help, Jaegyeom managed to get it onto his phone. Then Im Hyomun explained the game mechanics one by one—bombs, combos, items, hearts, all of it.

Friends Pang couldn’t be played without hearts. Hearts recharged automatically over time, but you could also receive them from friends through the messaging app.

“See this button? Press it and you can get hearts.”

After learning that, Jaegyeom had immediately gone back to the office and saved every number from the emergency contact list pinned to the partition beside his desk. Go Junhyung had helped him along the way.

According to Im Hyomun, once someone was saved in your contacts, they became your friend in the app. Then all you had to do was press the button beside their name to get hearts.

So Jaegyeom had pressed every single one.

Afterward, though, his teammates suddenly started laughing.

“Hey, youngest! You’re playing Friends Pang?”

Startled, Jaegyeom asked how they knew.

Go Junhyung had simply shown him the notification message he’d received.

“...”

Only then did Jaegyeom realize he’d misunderstood.

He’d assumed pressing the button automatically sent hearts to him. Instead, it sent a request message asking the other person to manually send one back.

Mortified, he immediately asked,

“Then pretend this never happened. No—wait, how do I cancel it?”

“You can’t,” Go Junhyung replied bluntly.

Jaegyeom had briefly gone rigid after realizing he’d unknowingly sent a request to Yoon Taehee too, but he quickly regained his composure. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

The milk was already spilled. What else could he do?

That had been yesterday.

Now Jaegyeom opened Friends Pang and checked his heart inbox.

[Hyomoonss sent you a heart.] Just now

[Junhyungㅋㅋ sent you a heart.] 1 day ago

[Kkangyibin♨ sent you a heart.] 1 day ago

Yoon Taehee’s name was nowhere on the list.

“...”

For some reason, Jaegyeom found himself getting irritated.

Of course, the two of them had fought yesterday. Yoon Taehee had assaulted him under the guise of fighting and kissed him, and Jaegyeom had slapped him in return—

But still.

How hard was it to send one stupid heart?

Yoon Taehee had even been off work yesterday. It wasn’t like he’d been busy. He was probably lying around at home doing nothing.

The fact that he couldn’t even send a single heart over something so trivial proved he was petty and narrow-minded after all.

So stingy. Even if he had sent one, I wouldn’t have used it out of spite.

Jaegyeom narrowed his eyes coldly at Yoon Taehee’s profile.

“Hey. How do you make somebody’s name disappear from here?”

“Hm? Oh, if you block them on the messaging app, they won’t show up anymore.”

“How do you block someone?”

Im Hyomun paused his game and demonstrated on his own phone.

“Look. You go in here, then open friend management...”

As Jaegyeom listened absently, his gaze drifted toward the window.

Then he froze.

His eyes widened.

A familiar figure was walking past outside.

Without thinking, Jaegyeom made a strange noise under his breath.

“Hm? What’s wrong?”

Im Hyomun looked up.

Jaegyeom immediately pointed toward the sky.

“A... a pigeon.”

The small man in the gray suit walked past the restaurant window just like that.